"The World Mission Vocation of the Bishop" is sabbatical theme

by the Right Reverent Thomas Clark Ely, Bishop of Vermont
Mountain Echo
March 2006

            February 26 is World Mission Sunday. On this last Sunday of the Epiphany Season, we hear the Gospel story of the Transfiguration and are put in mind of the transforming power of God that comes through our engagement in God’s reconciling mission. The transformation of our lives through engagement in God’s mission was the focus of our Diocesan Convention and a theme that many in Vermont continue to explore and express.
            In my Convention address I suggested that the Mountain of Transfiguration was not a place of destination—it was a place of departure. Peter, James and John go down from that mountaintop convinced that something powerful is compelling them to a ministry they never imagined for themselves. Witnesses to the transfiguring glory of God, they are sent into the world to be agents of the transforming power of love. So too are we.
            The theme for World Mission Sunday in the Anglican Communion this year is, “Anglican/Episcopal Women: Relevant, Radical, Responsive.” This theme recognizes the influential role of women in our church, especially in the area of mission, both local and global. On World Mission Sunday, members of the Anglican Consultative Council delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), along with the Episcopal Church delegation, will be in New York with thousands of other women from around the world (including some Vermonters) as preparations for the UNCSW get underway. We are asked to pray for them, and the peoples they represent, on February 26 and during the next two weeks.
            The occasion of World Mission Sunday also provides an opportunity for me to begin to share some of the exciting plans connected with my upcoming sabbatical. The Standing Committee approved my sabbatical leave from December 1, 2006 through March 31, 2007, in accordance with our diocesan canons and policies. I knew from the outset that I wanted this sabbatical to have a global mission focus, not just for me but also for the whole Diocese of Vermont. It seems an especially important time in the life of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion in particular for bishops and dioceses to deepen our awareness and participation in global mission. I firmly believe that our common sharing in Christ’s mission throughout the world is the thing that can unite us amidst all the tensions that might pull us apart.
            The theme of my sabbatical and the title of a grant application I submitted to the Louisville Foundation is, “The World Mission Vocation of the Bishop.” I am pleased to share with you that I was awarded one of the sixty Sabbatical Grants for Pastoral Leaders from the Louisville Foundation for the year 2006-2007. My plan is to explore the topic of world mission in an age of globalization and the role of the bishop therein through a period of directed reading in missiology (the study of mission theology) and globalization, and by spending time in El Salvador and Sudan.
            Both El Salvador and Sudan are places, as you know, with direct mission connections to the Diocese of Vermont. The Reverend Dr. Ian Douglas, Agnus Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will mentor me through a course of directed reading and assist me in reflecting on the experiential dimension of my sabbatical. Because this is a deeply spiritual matter for me, I will begin and end my sabbatical with retreat time at the Monastery of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (SSJE) in Cambridge, where I will have access to both my spiritual director and Dr. Douglas. Some family and personal refreshment time, including Christmas in Germany, will also built into the sabbatical.
            Here in Vermont, a Sabbatical Committee has been formed, including members from the Diocesan Council, the Standing Committee, the Cathedral and the Diocesan Ministry Support Team. Together we will pay attention both to the practicalities of institutional life during a bishop’s sabbatical and to the spiritual opportunities for the Diocese during this season. I wonder, for instance, if this might not be a good time for us to work with intentionality on our commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and to focus on the action plan in the Strategic Plan for Growth and Ministry that says we will “assist every church in the Diocese to strengthen or implement an international social justice ministry.” In this way the theme for the diocese and its congregations might be “The World Mission Vocation of a Diocese.”
            I anticipate the renewal to my vocation as a result of this sabbatical will come from a deeper understanding of the global dimension of a bishop’s ministry. To be more knowledgeable, more experienced, and more aware will help me be more confident and ready to embrace the responsibility I have for this component of my ministry as a bishop. Thus, my ministry among colleagues in the House of Bishops and my ministry as a pastoral leader in the Diocese of Vermont will both be enhanced.
            I am most grateful to the Diocese of Vermont for this sabbatical opportunity and to the generosity of the Louisville Foundation for helping to make it financially possible. As we ponder and pray about world mission and our vocation as the Body of Christ to embrace God’s call to mission in our daily life and living, please hold in your prayers all those engaged in mission throughout the world. In this particular season, be mindful of the ministry of women in mission: “Relevant, Radical and Responsive.”
            Love, incarnate in human lives of caring, compassion and justice, changes people and it changes circumstances. It brings into being—or perhaps better said, it brings into focus—all that God in Christ has already accomplished. Gad has given into our care the ministry of possibility, the possibility of sharing in the transfiguration—not just of our own lives—but of the life of the whole world. God’s mission is transformational.